Sony VAIO S Series gets Ivy Bridge, E Series grows bigger

Sony has updated its S Series range of laptops to include the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors and sleek designs for media fun on the move. Sony's E Series will also be getting two new screen sizes.

The previous iteration of the S Series was designed to be slim and portable while still packing in enough power to tackle any task you could throw at it. The same principles are kept in this new refresh, but they've been upgraded in some key areas for 2012.

Crucially, they've been given a processor upgrade to bring you the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors, for some models at least. Ivy Bridge aims to provide a serious serving of processing power as well as greatly improved graphics performance over its predecessor so the high-end quad-core i7 chip available on the 13-inch model should deliver some excellent results. Sony hasn't been specific on the other models but it's likely that Intel's lower-end Ivy Bridge Core i3 and i5 processors will be on offer, although they haven't been officially unveiled yet.

You can also slap in an SSD drive for super-fast read/write speeds as well as an Nvidia GeForce graphics card. Sony hasn't specified exactly what card that will be, but if it's the same Kepler card I've seen in the Acer Aspire Timeline U M3, then expect some serious performance, even for high-end games like Battlefield 3.

Both the 13.3- and the 15.5-inch models will be wrapped in materials including magnesium, aluminium and carbon fibre, hopefully resulting in a lightweight but sturdy construction, ready for a life on the road. The 15-inch models will offer a full HD display, which Sony promises will be extremely vivid and reflection-resistant, although how it measures up against other models remains to be seen.

The E Series received a makeover recently, with the 13-inch model sporting some sleek new looks, but it's now been joined by a 15.5- and 17.3-inch models. Sony is pretty thin on specifics for the hardware, only mentioning "Intel processors" -- the fact that it doesn't say "latest" suggests that they won't be using the Ivy Bridge chips.

The new 'wrap-around' design certainly looks pretty smart, although at over 2kg for the 13-inch model (and considerably more for the 17-inch) you're probably not going to want to carry them round with you for too long. The bigger models boast full HD screens so you'll be better off leaving them on your desk, playing your high-definition videos.

There's no word on pricing for either series yet, but they're due to go on sale from early June, so expect prices to start circulating just before then.